Various forms of storage systems are used today. These forms include direct attached storage, network attached storage (NAS) systems, storage area networks (SANs), and others. Storage systems are commonly used for a variety of purposes, such as providing multiple users with access to shared data, backing up data and others.
A storage system typically includes at least one computing system (may also be referred to as a “server” or “storage server”) executing a storage operating system configured to store and retrieve data on behalf of one or more client computing systems at one or more storage devices. The storage operating system exports data stored at storage devices as a storage volume. A storage volume is a logical data set which is an abstraction of physical storage, combining one or more physical mass storage devices or parts thereof into a single logical storage object. From the perspective of a client computing system each storage volume can appear to be a single storage device. However, each storage volume can represent storage space in one storage device, an aggregate of some or all of the storage space in multiple storage devices.
As stored electronic data continues to increase, multiple storage servers may be used to interface with multiple client systems for reading and writing information. Often, a plurality of clients may request information regarding storage devices, storage volumes and their attributes. Continuous efforts are being made for efficiently processing multiple client requests that may request information regarding a plurality of storage devices managed by a plurality of storage servers.